


Ears

by Infy



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M, dumb fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 00:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3670773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infy/pseuds/Infy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knows it can't be true. And yet she still followed along with him, carted him around to his stupid candy tree, attached herself to him enough that if he left, she couldn't bear it. But she knows he will. He's only human. And she is only taguel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ears

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gongji](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gongji/gifts).



It never is until they're alone that those fears crop up. Proud and valiant though the taguel are, or were, pangs of doubt, of anxiety never fail to rear their heads, slowly getting louder. They approach her like wolves on the hunt; she knows they're there. She knows, but she can't make a sound before they swallow her whole.

She knows it's going to happen sooner or later, and she knows nothing good can come of it. She knows it.

He hands her a piece of taffy--cherry, her favorite--and leans back on his hands, and her eyes train on him. She looks at him as if he were a puzzle... an apt comparison. Humans were all the same until she met Gaius.

She could never reasonably expect anything when he was around--nearly everything he said, everything he did, though it was all so familiar to her, seemed so brand new. The way he swung his sword, that laugh of his... and the fact that he'd asked her to marry him.

She knows it can't be true. And yet she still followed along with him, carted him around to his stupid candy tree, attached herself to him enough that if he left, she couldn't bear it. But she knows he will. He's only human. And she is only taguel.

His voice perks her ears. "You gonna let that hair down any time soon, sugar?" She looks his direction and everything seems to melt away behind a brutal mix of anxiety, apprehension, and the wish that he could love her like he would a human. He meets her eyes, and she notices a glint in them that draws her even closer despite the pounding heart in her chest.

All she can manage is a quiet "no."

"So you sleep like that...? Hah. You're weird." Gaius laughs, popping another piece of taffy into his mouth. Panne only sniffs her piece, and sets it aside for the off-chance that her nerves calm enough to enjoy it. It was as he always said. Candy should be savored. Another moment of silence as Gaius swallows the taffy he was chewing on. "Come on, I've never even seen you without those braids. What's the big deal...?"

"I..." She begins, unable to continue for a moment until she gathers her thoughts. "...I cannot show you my ears." She murmurs before trailing off, barely audible.

Gaius furrows a brow, and she averts her eyes, prompted by his gaze to continue, but everything in her begging to keep that Pandora's box shut. He only reaches over and draws her face up to look at him with the touch of a finger to her chin.

"You okay, Whiskers? What do you mean you can't show me your ears...? I've seen 'em. They're all floppy and... and..." Her expression forces him silent.

She lets out a breath of air resembling a forced chuckle, but elects to stay silent for a moment. He cannot break this illusion. He would never look her in the eye again. He'd hate her if he saw them outside that braid.

She'd hidden them as best she could to avoid being persecuted, but even still they stuck out. If she let him see her, even for something so inconsequential as this, she knew. He would hate her. Like all humans hate taguel.

"Come on, sugar. Be honest, I don't mind." He smiles at her, scooting closer to her until she feels the warmth of his leg against hers, and she shifts out of nerves--Gaius feels her shiver, and immediately scoots back away from her under the assumption it would make her more comfortable. "Something's wrong."

Panne only sighs, tucking her legs beneath her. "We are mates, are we not...?" She murmurs, forcing her voice even. She fails, and it breaks halfway through her sentence.

Gaius smirks and lets out a breathy chuckle. "Yeah. This isn't exactly news, Whiskers--"

"And this means we are to have young of our own at some point."

"I mean, I suppose Yarne being here kind of proves that--"

"And you are a man."

Gaius pauses for a moment. "If I'm not, I guess I've been wearing the wrong underwear--"

"I am a woman, but I am taguel." She continues, and though slightly curious as to why she wouldn't let him have an edgewise word, Gaius listens. "And... it is in your blood to detest me."

Gaius inhales deeply, tentatively inching his hand toward hers before threading her slender fingers through his. "I couldn't do that. Why would you think that...? Come on, why are you so nervous around me...?" He finally asks, furrowing his brow and leaning in closer. "Do you think I'm gonna hurt you or something?"

"...Yes," comes her reply after a long silence thickened the air around them, and as she tightly shuts her eyes to ward away the pressure building behind them, as she averts her face away from them to hide the pain they both knew she felt, she inhales deeply before continuing. "You will come to see me as all humans see taguel."

His mouth opens slightly, but his own words can't form themselves. All he can do is repeat hers back to her. "All humans..."

"That is why I will not show you my ears." She stands, removing her hand from his, and walks slowly, anxiously, to the flap of the tent. The only thing punctuating the silence inside Gaius's tent are the chirping crickets outside and the sound of Panne's shaky, nervous breath as she turns to leave. "If what you say is true, you have fallen in love with an illusion. I'd like to believe you would love all of me. But I know you are human, which means it is not so."

As she turned to go, a hand catches her wrist, tugging her gently back towards him. "I want you to stay, Panne." He draws her slowly into an embrace, and try as she may to avoid it, she can't help but curl her arms around him and bury her head in his shoulder.

The moment passes after millennia, and the both of them, standing there with locked muscles, caught deep in an embrace neither of them could break, merely wait for the other to say something--the silence is a respite of sorts, Gaius and Panne both content to remain standing there in each other's arms forever, if it's even possible... and Gaius begins to dream up ways that it could be.

The pulsing beat of his heart and hers together, wafting towards her sensitive ears, soothes her for even a moment before he shelves his hands on her waist and whispers something in her ear.

The words he speaks are ones she hasn't heard in years, ones that nearly bring her to the point of a mental breakdown. She grips his clothes tightly out of reflex. "You... you are speaking the tongue of my warren...?"

"I like listening to you talk, so I picked up the basics out of a fair few books." He smiles, placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "So, sugar... what'd I say...?"

Panne takes a deep breath and offers Gaius a tender smile of her own, a small one, one that he would never see unless he searches for it. But he does. Panne can only hold his hand again. "... It means 'I love you'," She finally murmurs, furrowing her brow and looking up at him, searching for something, anything to indicate that he didn't use the wrong words.

"Good, so I said it right, then." And he leans in and places a soft kiss on her lips. "...That there is how humans say it."

Panne slowly feels her insecurity melting away as she holds him closer, and his hands pull away from her waist to ghost up to undo the braid in her hair. She stiffens, but a quietly whispered "it's alright" stays her concerns for now. Her ears unfold as the wavy locks of hair spill over her shoulder, and she looks up at him with that same anxious look she had given him before.

This is it. It was nice while it lasted, but she was always destined to be alone.

As he strokes the strands of hair with his fingers, he touches her ear as well, and she shudders, shaking still as his body is pressed against hers. "This is me..." She finally mutters, her voice shaky behind an exhaled breath. "... This is what I am."

Gaius only smiles. "I think you're prettier like this, Panne." And as a wave of a mixture of bliss and relief washes over her, after she repeats the words he had said to her back to him, the thief holding her in his arms leans in to steal another kiss.

And though never having been interested in human culture, Panne graciously accepts his offering.


End file.
